Snapchat notified its users last Friday that ads would be appearing in the app the coming this weekend. Well folks, the first ad has arrived, and it is for a movie called Ouija .
The ad is a brief 20-second trailer for the upcoming horror movie, and it is clearly marked as “sponsored” within the app. The movie ad was purchased by Universal Pictures and was sent to Snapchat users’ in their “Recent Updates” feed.
The placement of the ad is ideal for advertisers, as it is the exact same place where users’ messages from contacts appear. However, a user must click on the ad to get it to play, just like any other Snapchat message. Therefore, users have the option to simply skip over the ad without playing it.
The ad will only be available on Snapchat users’ accounts for 24 hours and then it will completely disappear. Snapchat users should get used to the ads because they are most likely here to stay. The Bench Mark Monitor notes that Snapchat is trying to avoid the “creepy.” In a recent blog post, Snapchat admitted that it might be a little odd at first to see ads within the app. It said that this would be the first time ever that it would do something like this. It further explained that this would be the first time that it would be paid out to roll out content in its space. However, in the same post, Snapchat assured its users that the ads it will roll out would not be creepy. In other words, they are not targeted to users by interest. This may mean that Snapchat would not analyze users’ data and usage just to adjust ad targeting for advertisers.
